Tom Werner / Getty Images This Thursday, September 1, in an issue of “Complément d’Enquête”, the NGO Foodwatch denounces the practices of certain brands which reduce the quality or quantity of some of their products in order to limit prices, without informing the consumer. Tom Werner / Getty Images This Thursday, September 1, in an issue of “Complément d’Enquête”, the NGO Foodwatch denounces the practices of certain brands which reduce the quality or quantity of some of their products in order to limit prices, without informing the consumer. CONSUMPTION – Less chocolates in the box or milk in the ice cream. In order not to increase prices on the shelves too much and risk scaring away customers worried about their wallets because of inflation, some manufacturers are discreetly reducing the quantity, even the quality of their products, denounces this Thursday, September 1, the Foodwatch association. . “Shrinkflation” (from the English verb shrink, to shrink), which consists in masking the price increases of products by reducing their weight, is in the sights of Foodwatch, which “fights for transparency in the agri-food sector”. Revelations in “Complément d’Enquête” In the program “Complément d’Enquête” broadcast this Thursday evening on France 2, Foodwatch thus pinpoints six brands “which have changed the size of their flagship products in recent years”. In recent months, consumers have seen the amount of their till receipt increase due to inflation. M… https://t.co/DYl3j2hFq6 — Further investigation (@Cdenquete) See the tweet So Lindt’s Pyrenean milk chocolate boxes have been reduced by six bites, from 30 to 24 and reducing the overall weight by 20%. While the price per kilo, recorded at the Carrefour distributor, has jumped 30% since 2020, the increase in the price of the box has been limited to 4%… Salvetat, owned by Danone, has reduced the size of its bottles of water from 1.25 liters to 1.15 liters in 2020. In the end, the price of the bottle increases little (+5%), while the price per liter has risen by 15% at Intermarché. And Foodwatch points out that the mention “Generous format like the people of the South” has disappeared from the label. To justify itself, Lindt France explains that “the price per kilogram has increased, reflecting the volatility and the rising costs of (its) operations”, according to a letter sent to Foodwatch and consulted by AFP. Consequence of soaring prices Industrial production costs have soared in recent months (energy, transport, packaging), like those of agricultural raw materials, for example cocoa. Regarding prices, some are discarding on supermarkets: “We can only advise a sale price that the distributor is free to apply or not”, writes the consumer service of Danone France. The information on the packaging is, however, their own. [1/12] 🚨 New foodwatch #shrinkflation survey 🚨 In these times of inflation, some consumer products… https://t.co/33VEEolPfd — foodwatch France (@foodwatch_fr) See the tweet In this time of high inflation, supermarket customers are very sensitive to the prices displayed and it can be dangerous to increase them too much, at the risk of the customer turning to the competition. Reducing the quantities makes it possible to remain “competitive” while preserving the margins, recently commented the financial analyst John Plassard, of the fund manager Mirabaud. According to him, about 2% of food products sold in supermarkets could be affected by “shrinkflation”, cereals and chocolate bars in mind. “It’s a completely legal practice, provided that the weight of the product is clearly indicated on the packaging so as not to mislead the consumer”, explains Guillaume Forbin, lawyer specializing in consumer law at Kramer Levin. Foodwatch still regrets the “opacity” of the process and calls for better transparency in consumer information, via a petition. A drop in quality too Shrinkflation is not confined to France. Many users of the TikTok social network in the United States have pinpointed a tendency to pack more vacuum in the same container. In his study, John Plassard also puts his finger on another phenomenon, “cheapflation”. It consists of “replacing certain products or foods with cheaper substitutes (food or not). He gives the example, in the United States, of an ice cream that has become a “frozen dessert”, because “so many dairy products have been removed from it (…) that it can no longer be legally called ice cream”. If this can “pose an image problem”, in the case where “the list of ingredients on the packaging has been changed”, nothing illegal there either, comments Guillaume Forbin. Anyone who does not respect the “very strict” consumer law is liable to “very high fines”. Another process: the consumer specialist Olivier Dauvers points on his blog to the example of a box of baby food from the giant Nestlé, whose size has increased, from 400 to 415 grams. It is sold much more expensive than the previous model (+23% of the price per kilo). But the pill passes thanks to the new packaging boasting a mixture now containing “5 cereals”, a supposedly better quality product. See also on HuffPost: In Japan, these penguins refuse to lower the quality of their fish You cannot view this content because you have refused cookies associated with third-party content. If you want to view this content, you can change your choices.